Fraud Alleged in N.Y. Schools’ Attendance Rolls
A state commission investigating possible attendance fraud in the city’s public school system has found widespread, systemic abuse, including listing dead children among those reporting to class each day.
Gov. George Pataki said Monday that the Moreland Act Commission’s findings showed “a conscious pattern of abuse and fraud” aimed at inflating school rolls and getting state-allocated money.
He renewed his call to abolish the city Board of Education.
“It goes beyond mere negligence or mistakes and what is required is sweeping reform and change in the system,” the governor said at a news conference with members of the commission.
Pataki said the commission also found that in the first four months of this year, 40,000 attendance sheets representing 1 million pupil days were never filed. Failure to file automatically gets recorded as 100% attendance.
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew denied any wrongdoing.
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